You Have Been Like a Boat on Dry Ground
From my kitchen I could hear this sound like the garage door opener engaging and disengaging repeatedly. I looked out the door to the garage to see my husband trying to get the weed-eater to start. The sound I heard was his frustrated efforts, intense in vainly pulling the starter cord repeatedly, and he seemed to be expending so much energy in his futile attempt. I went to console him a bit and suggested he ask the Holy Spirit to help him with the task.
I breathe a short prayer on his behalf as I went back into the house. I returned to my project of cleaning out one of the file cabinets in the lower level and found a note Father gave me some time ago:
‘As you have sought me, as you have desired me, as you have cried out for me, I will come to you. I will sweep you up into my presence. I have come for you. I have come to take you unto myself. I will sweep you into a new place in me.
You have been like a boat on dry ground, but now, even now, my Spirit and the fullness of my presence will overflow your dry ground and the river of my presence will cause your boat to float. The water of my Spirit will overflow your dry ground and cause it to be a river; a river of life… A river of Living Water.
It is now that I will manifest my Glory and give you the portion reserved for you. To take you to a new place in the knowledge of my Glory.’
Have you ever had a hungry, crying baby? If the perceived delay in receiving what the child is crying for is greater than he can understand, he will not even realize that the bottle you are trying to place in his mouth is the very thing he is crying for. The Lord has gifts for us… love gifts of His Spirit, gifts of His presence, or His grace. We often work ourselves up to unnecessary levels of distress, while He is present to meet our needs. You don’t have to beg for what He has freely given.
Like my husband’s flustered effort to do on his own what seemed like a simple task, I have often tried to do God’s work on my own. Sometimes it seems like a good idea, but in retrospect I realize it is often not a God idea. It seems like such an easy little thing to say something, “in love”, only to start a raging fire. Or perhaps all of the doors seem open to accomplish a mission, only to discover at the end of it all that our adversary knows how to open doors also. God is not put out by our requests, He is the one who wanted to have us as His children in the first place. He wants to spend time with us and teach us how to be like Himself. He wants to teach us how to do exploits in Jesus’ name.
